Alexander Albon has held his fifth place at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday after Red Bull was acquitted of trying to dry his grill before the race.
FIA Technical Delegate Jo Bauer notified the race stewards at Hungaroring that Red Bull had used the leaf blowers, generally used to cool the car, to dry the Albon grill slot after a little rain .
Race director Michael Masi had reminded teams before the race that they were not allowed to artificially dry the track in any way.
Commissioners confirmed during the race that they would investigate Red Bull about the incident, citing a possible violation of Article 22.3 of the sports regulations.
Article 22.3 of the regulation says that “apart from driving on the track, competitors may not attempt to alter the grip of any part of the track surface”.
But after meeting with a Red Bull representative after the race, the stewards discovered that the team had not actively tried to dry the grill slot as a defendant.
“The commissioners reviewed the video evidence and concluded that the competitor did not attempt to alter the grip of the track surface,” the FIA bulletin read.
It means that Albon maintains his fifth place and 10 points scored in the final classification.
Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner said before the decision that the team had not intended to dry out the grill slot.
“I don’t think anything was intentionally done,” Horner said.
“I haven’t spoken to the team manager yet. I hope it isn’t a problem.”
“But obviously someone has reported it. I’ll wait for the news from the team manager.”
This case was the first time stewards have reviewed the possible drying of the grill since the late race director Charlie Whiting issued a clarification after the 2017 Malaysian Grand Prix.
Complaints about grill drying and a possible violation of regulations led Whiting to confirm that teams were unable to use the leaf blowers to dry the grill slot before the next race in Japan.
In the event of rain and with the permission of the race director, teams can pitch tents on their cars to keep them dry and the grill slot before the race.
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